What other services can a Service Dog do if no leading the blind?
A few months back I ran into this guy who had a Service Dog, which he named “Scruffy”. This dog was not the usual Service Dog, he was not large enough to be a Seeing Eye Dog, and his owner was not blind (he said he suffered severe ADHD). He spent most of the time carrying the dog around to keep it from getting stepped on; it was some toy rat-dog type of breed, I call them ”purse mutts”. Because the dog was classified as a Service Dog, he was able to take it into stores, restaurants, etc. What service was this dog performing? Other than being Seeing Eye Dogs what services can Service Dogs perform, especially ones so small the average alley cat is larger?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
7 Answers
Service animals do all kinds of stuff. They get the mail, turn on and off lights, sometimes only there for companionship
I know of veteran dogs, autism dogs. Dogs help people turn off lights (or turn them on), fetch certain objects. They can do a whole lot!
Check this youtube clip for PTSD suffering veterans.
Some dogs are trained to alert the owner of impending seizures.
Quite a lot. As GloPro says, there are seizure-alert dogs, but these are rare. More common are seizure-response dogs, which are trained to get their human lying down on the ground and lay on top of them for the duration of the seizure to hold their limbs down.
The dog of the man you encountered was probably a mental or emotional health service dog.
Service dogs are amazing. Endal, one of the most famous service dogs, saved his person after he was knocked out of his wheelchair by a passing car. He “pulled Allen, who was unconscious, into the recovery position, retrieved his mobile phone from beneath the car, fetched a blanket and covered him, barked at nearby dwellings for assistance, and then ran to a nearby hotel to obtain help.”
I’ve seen a dog that was trained to spot if someone with epilepsy was going to have a seizure 30 mins before they had the seizure. Which I thought was pretty cool.
I have a friend who has a dog trained to smell propelyne glycol. She has severe anaphylactic reactions to PG, so her dog smells everything and alerts her when it is in the air, or in a product she is considering purchasing.
A girl at my daughter’s school has a service dog because her anxiety causes her to blackout sometimes. He helps not only to protect her but to calm her too.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
